Emergency services vehicles, for example ambulances, fire engines and police vehicles, during day to day operations, are required to attend the scenes of various incidents such as fires, accidents, or the like. At these scenes the occupants of the emergency services vehicle will generally be absent from the vehicle for extended periods while attending to the scene. During these periods of absence the emergency services vehicle is at the risk of being stolen or otherwise tampered with. This issue is compounded by the fact that it is often necessary to leave the ignition key in the vehicle, and the vehicle running, in order to ensure that other systems of the vehicle remain operational, for example equipment running on the vehicle's batteries, such as life-support equipment in an ambulance, radios, etc.
In addition it is normal practice for such emergency services vehicles to be operational when the vehicle is at the start of a shift, when it may be parked up in the ambulance parking lot/depot and left running/engine idling. This is necessary to ensure reduced emergency response duration, vehicle readiness for an emergency response call and that such vehicles such as ambulances are at a comfortable temperature for to promote patient comfort and care etc. This idle time will normally far exceed any idle time at the scene of an accident/incident. Controlling/managing this non incident engine idling time has a far greater effect in reducing fuel burn, carbon footprint, engine wear, service intervals, etc.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle control system, in particular for use with emergency service vehicles, which addresses the above-mentioned problems.